The Highland area covers the
historic counties of
Caithness,
Inverness-shire,
Nairnshire,
Ross and Cromarty and
Sutherland, with the exception of the parts of Inverness-shire and Ross and Cromarty in the
Outer Hebrides. The area also includes an area around
Ardnamurchan from the historic county of
Argyll and the
Grantown-on-Spey area from
Moray, which were both transferred to the Highland region as part of the 1975 reforms. The council area covers a land area of The Highland and Islands division of
Police Scotland also includes the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland (the former area of the
Northern Constabulary) and therefore covers an area of , which is larger than that of the state of
Belgium. Though relatively populous for a Scottish council area, it is also sparsely populated. At per km2 in , and comparable with that of
Bolivia,
Chad, Russia, or the U.S. state of
Nebraska. Historically, the area was home to a much higher percentage of Scotland's population. The rural population of the Highlands (both within and outwith the council area) declined in the late 19th century even as Scotland's grew substantially. For example, the population of
Skye declined from 23,082 in 1841 to 15,705 in 1891 and a low point of 7,183 in 1971, before growing in more recent decades. The city of Inverness is by far the largest settlement, with its urban area having a population of 59,910 in 2012. The highest point in the Highland council area is
Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in both Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole. Its northernmost point is the
Island of Stroma, in the
Pentland Firth. Its southernmost point is on the
Morvern peninsula. Highland contains the northernmost and westernmost points of the island of Great Britain, respectively at
Dunnet Head and . Despite the name, not all of Highland is mountainous. The areas east of Inverness, as well as the
Black Isle, eastern Sutherland, and all of Caithness are, in fact, low-lying. ==Gaelic language==